WordLive - Year OneSample

Prepare: Imagine you could invite anyone in the world round for a meal. How would you choose? Thank God for his invitation to you (Psalm 23:5). A tricky assignment Ananias had a tricky assignment from God. Happily he did not have to be blinded to take notice of him, though he needed God’s special reassurance to help him go (v 15). When he finally met the feared enemy of the believers he did an extraordinary thing and called him ‘brother’ (v 17) even before he had been baptised. I wonder how that made Saul feel. It tells us a lot about relationships in the early church. Reaching out Our families and our Christian groups are precious places. We can be nervous about opening them up to people who are not like us. Similarly we can be apprehensive about reaching out to help people on the margins of our society, especially those who seem most sinful. God looks at them differently. He wants to invite them to his party (Luke 14:21). Each of them has the capacity to be a great servant of Christ (v 15). Respond: Who can you encourage today? Could you pray with a struggling fellow Christian for them to be filled with the Holy Spirit and equipped for God? Could you also try to find someone on the edge of your circle, or beyond, to approach as a ‘brother’ or ‘sister’ and show them something of God’s love? If you are worried about this assignment ask God to reassure you. http://www.wordlive.org/Session/Classic/2012-12-04